Thorn | Exotic Quest Guide (Destiny 2)

Thorn has finally arrived in Destiny 2. The fan-favorite hand cannon from Destiny 1 is back, as promised, within the Season of the Drifter. As expected, there are several quest steps to obtain the legendary gun, some that will be far more difficult than others. This guide should make the journey much easier, should you face issues on any part.

A Trip to the EDZ

To trigger the quest you have to travel to the Salt Mines on the northern part of Trostland in the EDZ. This is the location where, if you remember the vanilla story missions, you give Hawthorne the signal transmitter. There is no location indicator, but land in Trostland and head down the tunnel at the far end behind the church. Go until you find a room full of Fallen and approach the elevator, where nearby you’ll have the option to Transmat. This will teleport you top side where you’ll proceed forward, finding a railing on the left hand side. Travel along the railing and jump up into a hole. In the wreckage ahead you’ll “sift through the ashes” of an old campfire and find A Melted Hunk of Metal.

Rebuilding the Gun

After visiting Banshee, the next three steps can all be completed in three different ways. The first gives the options of completing bounties from Asher Mir on Io, defeating Warlocks in the Crucible, or completing Nightfalls, all to gather Hadronic Essence; the latter of which grants the most progress per completion. However, the length of time you spend on each depends on if you are proceeding alone or with a fireteam. You can also mix and match all of the activities if you don’t want to spend all of our time on one part.

Next you will have to collect Plasteel Plating from bounties given by Sloane on Titan, defeating Titans in Crucible or by completing the Blind Well. Similar to the Nightfall option in the previous step, Blind Well will give you the fastest completion. It takes five full tier 3 runs to complete the step, so you can easily get your bounty from Petra Venj completed as well. If you choose the Crucible, unfortunately (as with the previous Crucible step) it is completely random as to how many of the needed class will be in your match.

And for the third similar step you will be grabbing some Sapphire Wire via bounties from Ana Bray on Mars, defeating Hunters in the Crucible or completing waves of Escalation Protocol, also on Mars. Escalation Protocol provides the quickest path forward and you can grab bounties at the same time. If you are missing any of the Ikelos weapons this is a great time to jump in since all of them are available this week, and luckily Mars is the Flashpoint as well. There are also loads of Hunters in the Crucible so that would likely be quicker than chasing either the Warlocks or Titans for the last two steps.

The Crucible Grind

This is where the difficulty starts to ramp up, as you need to defeat Guardians in the Crucible using void weapons and abilities or a hand cannon. You gain more progress in Competitive and Iron Banner or if you get void precision hand cannon streaks. If you haven’t played much Competitive this season that would be the recommended way to go, as you’ll likely be matched with others at the same Glory rank. The downside to Competitive is often getting matched in Survival or Countdown which can make progress tough, so the slower grind of Quickplay may be a better option for some players. If you are consistent with hand cannons the Ikelos or Kindled Orchid are good options. Otherwise use whatever void special weapon, heavy and subclass you are best with. Progress can be slow going as it does not count assists so you need to focus on getting the final blow. Fortunately for many you do not lose progress when defeated as you did during the Destiny 1 Thorn Quest.

The Chasm of Screams

After a quick visit to Tyra Karn on the Farm (yes, you read that right) it is time for the final part of the quest. This will be a unique version of the Savathun’s Song strike which has been called The Chasm of Screams. The recommended power is 660 with Harsh Elements, Iron and Blackout as modifiers. Harsh Elements means that damage from void, solar and arc is all increased. Until the boss, the strike is no harder than a normal Nightfall at power level. It is important to coordinate weapons and supers, as there are enemies with all three types of shields throughout the strike. Things do get tricky once you reach the boss room for several reasons.

The most important thing about this is that you cannot melt the boss immediately, as doing so will not progress the quest. You have to reach the final phase where you slam the void energy in the location on the platform. Two large Knights will then spawn,, which you need to take down alongside the giant Shrieker. As is always the case with this strike, an invisible Hunter makes carrying the orb to the middle easiest, otherwise the other two teammates need to keep the Shrieker’s attention while avoiding the Knights. This is where supers come in handy, as having either a tether or Well of Radiance is key to surviving the still dangerous thrall, and a banner shield helps to block the boss’s shots. They will kill you quickly if you are not focusing enough attention on them.

Having exotic armor equipped that refills your super is almost a necessity for this, along with having conserved as much heavy ammo as possible. It was also really help to have at least one high damage super such as nova bomb. If you are unable to chain supers then it is important to stick together and be patient. Be wary of the common enemies and on the lookout for orbs or heavy ammo bricks. If your team gets wiped you have to start the entire encounter all over again. The cave area on the right hand side provides cover if necessary as well. Once the Knights and Shrieker are down, you’ve now completed the quest and obtained the fabled exotic hand cannon Thorn.